Note on Theocritus XXII.

31-32
Author(s): Edward Fitch
Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1915), p. 455
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/261639 .
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 NOTES AND DiSCUSSIONS 455

can find in earlier writers is Seneca NaturalesQuaestionesiva, Praef. 9:

"Eo enim dementiaevenimus, quod qui parce adulatur,pro maligno fit."
(The editorschangeto "ut . . . . sit.") Herethe quod-clausemay well be
substantive,in appositionwith eo; but it is undoubtedlyof consecutivenature.
FRANCES SHIMER SCHOOL A. F. BRAUNLICH
MOUNT CARROLL, ILL.

NOTE ON THEOCRITUS xxii. 31-32

eOca At's 7roX\ol KwLr& KXt/aKos dt4Owr9pcV 9t
rotXwv dv6pes froavop 'I1,qoviq7s acrb P&.
These verses, which describe the landing of the Argonauts in the Bebry-
cian country, deserve more comment than they have received from expositors.
Mr. Edmonds, in the Loeb Library Theocritus,has drawn attention to a latent
difficulty by stumbling over it. He translates: " Down the ladders on either
side went crowding the men of Jason's ship." Now, it is quite natural to
think of two ladders, since "both walls" are mentioned. However, Theo-
critus has a different picture before his mind, as it seems to me. There is,
first, the contrast of kLL and 7oXXot, similar to that in xiii. 33. With this
contrast the phrase a,AOo74pov U 7o&xwvshould not be allowed to interfere;
certainly it should not destroy it. The expression "both walls" occurs once
before in this idyll, vss. 12-13, and still earlier, in Theognis 674. In all three
cases it presents a ship under the aspect of starboard and larboard; danger
comes from both sides, the heroes as they rowed sat along both sides. Our
passage, then, would mean: from both sides of the "Argo" where the heroes
had been rowing they thronged down one ladder from Jason's ship.
Aside from linguistic considerations there is reason for rejecting the
notion of two ladders. It was long ago pointed out by Brunn1that Theocritus
in describing this scene is not drawing upon his unaided fancy, but is in-
fluenced by types familiar in works of art. A ship drawn up on shore, a
voyager on the ladder, other voyagers on the shore or on the deck; this is a
typical scene which is found on two Argonautic monuments, the vase painting
depicting the death of Talos, the Cretan giant, and the Ficoronian cista.
Pausanias in his description of the Nekyia of Polygnotus (x. 25. 3) mentions
the ladder, and Robert in his reconstruction of the painting uses the familiar
type. A similar use of this type on a Parthenon metope has recently been
reported.2 The ladder is present on one of the slabs of the Telephus frieze of
the Pergamene altar. One who has examined the monuments will hardly
believe that because Theocritus mentions "both walls" he has in mind two
ladders.
HAMILTON COLLEGE EDWARD FITCH

I1Sitzungsberichte der Bayer. Akqd. d. Wissenschaften, 1879, p. 17; cf. Legrand,

Etude sur ThMocrite, p. 226.
2 A. J. Arch., XVII, 539.

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